death penalty news June 9, 2004:
UK: Anger at BNP victims leaflet Voters in North Wales were appalled yesterday by a BNP leaflet featuring photographs of child murder victims, including Sophie Hook. The campaign literature was pushed through doors in Llandudno, where seven-year-old Sophie was abducted, raped and murdered by convicted killer Howard Hughes in 1995. Last night BNP party chairman Nick Griffin defended the leaflet, saying there was a need for a debate on capital punishment. Gwen Gray from Llandudno, who received one of the leaflets, said: "I was so furious that I ran out into the street to find who had posted it but they had gone." The leaflet demanded capital punishment for all child murderers and declared: "All these children would be alive today if our spineless politicians had the guts to declare war on the paedophiles." It claimed a majority vote by mainstream parties to reduce the age of homosexual consent to 16 was an indication that MPs were "trying to legalise child sex step by step". Gerry Davies, 65, the Llandudno painter and decorator who discovered Sophie Hook's body in 1995 said yester-day: "If the BNP are using the murder of Sophie Hook as a voting strategy, I think that is appalling. "If they are using it as a vote catcher then I think it's a vote loser." Mr Davies is aiming to re-establish the campaign group Parasol (Parents Aiming to Right Abysmal Sex Offender Laws) which disbanded a few years ago. Stonewall Cymru, which campaigns for gay, lesbian and bisexual rights, last night condemned leaflet as "sickening". Spokesman Derek Walker said: "Elec-tions should be a time for proper debate. No issue should be exempt from discussion. However it should not be a time to propagate lies and hatred against minority communities." BNP chairman Nick Griffin denied last night the leaflet was inflammatory. He said that it was a localised version of a national leaflet, probably put about by a "loose supporter". (source: ic NorthWales)
